Island life, reef expeditions and a hurricane…

It seems like I blinked and three months went by...

After our last visa run to the US and Mexico (which you can read about HERE) we returned once more to the island of Utila, the smaller of the Bay Islands off Honduras for our fifth three-month-long stay on this beautiful Caribbean island since we first came here in 2014.

On our way back to Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras

Feeling excited to be back to our island home of Utila 

Flying over Ecomarine Dive Centre!

During our previous three months on the island in March, April, and May of this year, my husband Trav completed a PADI Staff Instructor course at Coral View Dive Centre. This time around, we were returning to Utila so that he could take up a voluntary position teaching scuba diving to students on a reef conservation management expedition at Coral View Dive Centre. 

Trav’s internship over a period of eight weeks during the summer was a fantastic opportunity for him to gain valuable experience working and teaching scuba diving as a PADI Staff Instructor.

When the expedition project was over, Trav also completed his IYT Powerboat Captain Course. I’m so proud of him - what a busy year in which he has achieved so much!

While Trav was busy teaching scuba diving, I was busy too working on my next novel entitled ‘Island in the Sun’ which I hope to publish later in 2016. During that time, when I was researching and writing about a hurricane in the story, we actually had a hurricane warning for our part of the eastern Caribbean Sea!

Hurricane Earl had started out as a tropical wave and, during my research watching the National Hurricane Centre website, I watched it progress to a tropical storm and then become a hurricane. Trav accused me of conjuring it up!

Hurricane Earl

Everyone on the island began to prepare for Earl’s arrival in earnest by cutting down trees that might fall on power lines or properties, moving items like diving equipment away from the dockside, battening up beachfront properties, taking boats to the safety of the lagoon, and of course planning hurricane parties and mixing hurricane cocktails.

With only a few hours to go before Earl was expected to hit our island, the hurricane changed course - and we got a day of wet windy weather instead. But of course other places were not so lucky and our friends in Belize reported quite a lot of damage to palm trees and property but thankfully no-one hurt.

Our last few weeks on the island were spent at a more leisurely pace, riding our bicycles around the island, getting a couple of new tattoos (me) and spending time on the dock with our lovely friends at Ecomarine Dive Centre – our home from home on Utila. We also had lots of parties on the beach and BBQ's and movie nights on the dock and we had lots of fun at carnival time. Once, I even got to swim in the sea close up to a pilot whale and her baby and several times I got to catch tarantulas in our house and put them back outside on the porch. All part of the amazing aspect of island life on Utila!

Our bikes parked outside Rehab Bar

Steve 'Daddio's' birthday beach party on Utila:
Photo by Dave Thatcher

Ecomarine dinner at Mango Tango Restaurant Utila

Trav and Steve at Ecomarine Dive Centre

Having a drink on the dock of the bay at Mango Tango

A tarantula spider in our house on Utila

With my friend Giselle on Carnival Day

Happy days out on the Salva Vida with Trav and Ecomarine

My new tattoos came about because a guest tattooist called Jeff Dott from the USA came to Utila and, after seeing his work, I decided to finally get my 'mermaid and diver' tattoo done on my thigh and, to cover the scar on my foot, a 'marine' montage with a shell, a starfish, a sand dollar and a sea turtle.

Getting my new tattoos - no pain no gain...

Leaving Honduras for the USA in late August

We left Utila in late August when our three month visa once again expired and we flew to the US. We stayed for a week in Florida on the east coast at Lauderdale by the Sea – a quiet little seaside town that is a bit of a throwback to the 1950’s. We rented a little self-catering apartment opposite the beach and we chilled out for the whole week.

On the beach in Lauderdale by the Sea, Florida

Our small rental and pool in Lauderdale by the Sea

The small town of Lauderdale by the Sea Florida

It was such a treat to go to a big US supermarket and to see the huge variety of foods available. After our long stay on a small Caribbean island that only got supplies by boat twice a week, we could hardly believe our eyes. We bought steaks and sausages and cheese and vegetables and lots of other fresh yummy foods.

It was such a treat to buy a variety of fresh foods in the US!

Trav at the BBQ

We enjoyed shopping for food and cooking for ourselves in the BBQ back at our apartment. We did eat out a couple of times however and we took walks on the beach and lazed around in the sun at the pool and we slept - we did a lot of sleeping to make up for the sleep loss on Utila - where we were woken every morning by our natural alarm clock of ear-piercingly loud cockerels crowing outside our bedroom window at around 4.30am!

A view of the beach from Aruba restaurant

Having beers and burgers and enjoying live music at Whisky Tango Bar in Fort Lauderdale

Revived and refreshed, we set off on our next adventure by flying from Fort Lauderdale to Vancouver Canada, where we were to stay with family for the next two weeks. My Uncle Ed (my mum’s brother) and his wife Dawn have, over the years, often invited us over to stay with them at their home in Hope, British Columbia, so we thought we’d take them up on their kind offer at long last and visit.

Canoedling in British Columbia Canada

So do pop back soon to catch up with our exciting first ever trip to Canada!

Janice xx

All packed and ready to go…!

Last week, when I started to think about what to pack for our three month long trip to Utila, I was thinking minimal and feeling smug. Today, I will admit it was a bit of a struggle to come in under the 23Kg luggage allowance for American Airlines. And, despite my best intentions, by the time I had stuffed in all the last minute ‘essentials’ my suitcase was overweight and I had to start unpacking and making decisions about what I really needed to take and what I should leave behind.

 

All the scuba diving gear is essential of course and I decided that I could not part with any of my toiletries, as it was going to be impossible to get three months supply of shampoo, creams, sun lotions, potions etc, except perhaps at really steep prices - so they all had to stay. Ditto the bug sprays, the torches, the tea bags. I soon realised had to start economising on clothes. Booooo-hoooo…!

Oh well, now that we are teetering just under our luggage allowance, our lovely neighbour is taking us to the village station. From there we will travel to Glasgow by train and then onto the airport by bus. From Glasgow we will fly to London – where we are staying overnight before flying to Miami. From Miami we will connect to a flight to mainland Honduras. We are staying overnight in the notorious town of San Pedro Sula and then catching a small plane over to the island of Utila the next day.

Where is Utila you may ask…? Well, Utila is the smaller of what is known as The Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras. It is located on the mesoamerica coral reef – reputedly the second best coral reef in the world after the Great Barrier Reef off Australia. It is a truly unique island destination and a scuba divers paradise. It is also a hub for whale shark viewing, which as a diver, is what most appeals to Trav. It appeals to me because it is said to be ‘the Caribbean as it used to be’. It has a quaint central town that is said to be ‘the Key West of twenty years ago’ and I like the sound of all that laid back unspoilt charm. You can find out more about Utila at: http://utilaguide.com/

Trav and I have rented a beach apartment and from there he will go out diving each day while I write. The first of my works-in-progress ‘Castaway in the Caribbean’ is planned for release in November this year and is a romantic adventure novel. Where better to be inspired than on a tiny and remote Caribbean island..?

So that’s all for now my lovely peeps.

My next update will be from the Caribbean island of Utila!